The Ancient Yuletide Carol
by MidnightRain6593
Summary: "You want to reminisce on celebrations perpetuated by the dead mother who tried to kill you multiple times?"


**Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries nor am I making any profit from this. Characters, etc. all belong to their respective owners.**

**A/N: This is another prompt that was given to me on Tumblr someone asked for a Christmas-themed Bonlijah fic (or possibly the Wiccan equivalent since Elijah is one of the few people that seems to respect witches).**

**I did do my research on Yule so that I could get everything as accurate as possible, but since I'm not entirely familiar with Wicca, please forgive me for any errors.**

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She really should learn to stop answering her door. Nothing good ever came from answering her door because it was always someone demanding her help with whatever Elena-centered issue that was going on. In this case, she ended up getting kidnapped by the eldest Original.

When she opened the door, she most certainly had not expected to see Elijah standing on her front porch.

"Bonnie—"

She slammed the door in his face before he even had a chance to say more, ignoring any sounds of protest coming from him. She walked away, heading for the stairs, ignoring any resounding knocks on the front door.

In retrospect, Bonnie realized she should have been far more suspicious because Elijah gave up far too easily.

A few hours after the front door incident, Bonnie made the mistake of stepping outside, planning to do some last minute shopping before Christmas in about five days. Her dad was actually going to make it home this year and Bonnie wanted to be sure to make the most of it.

One second she was standing on the front porch and the next she was in the passenger seat of Elijah's car, speeding down the road with no hopes of getting out.

This sort of thing was why she should never answer her door again. Or step foot outside the house. Or do _anything. _Ever.

She had no idea where they were going or why, but she could feel her trepidation increase when they left the town limits of Mystic Falls.

"I'm sorry that this is so…unconventional, but it really is important that you come with me," he said, brown eyes glancing briefly at her.

Bonnie resisted the urge to snort. Only Elijah would call kidnapping her and taking her to God knows where _unconventional. _

"If I wanted you dead, I would have killed you a long time ago," he added.

"Is that supposed to be reassuring?" she replied dryly. It's the first time she's spoken during the whole uncomfortable ride. "Because it wasn't."

The rest of the ride went by in silence.

After what was probably the most uncomfortable and most awkward hour of Bonnie's life, Elijah finally pulled to a stop outside of a small cabin.

"You never did ask me why I'm going through all this trouble," he said as pulled the key out of the ignition.

Bonnie shrugged. "Why would I? You need me to do some sort of spell. It's not exactly rocket science." She paused. "However, you'll be disappointed to find out that my magic isn't exactly what it used to be at the moment. I'm lucky if I can even manage to light a candle."

"I already know that," he said.

She blinked and looked at him in surprise. She wondered _how _he could possibly know that, but then decided that she had a more pressing question. "Then just what am I doing here? If you think you can force some sort of magic out of me—"

"What do you know about the Yule?"

"The Yule?" Bonnie asked. She was somewhat familiar with it, but despite being a practicing witch, she was quite awful at keeping up with the different holidays and ceremonies.

"It's to celebrate the winter solstice."

"I know what it is!" She snapped.

"Good. That's why we are here." He got out of the car and walked over to the passenger side, opening the door for Bonnie. She didn't move.

"We're here because of the Yule?" she said.

"If you'd rather sit in the car, by all means do. However, you'll be in there for a while because I have no plans to return you to Mystic Falls until tomorrow morning."

Bonnie sighed and unbuckled her seatbelt, grumbling a bit. She trusted Elijah about as far as she could throw him. And given her lack of magic, she couldn't throw him very far at all.

When they walked through the front door of the cabin, Bonnie certainly did not expect to be greeted with the sight of a peppy Rebekah and a very bored looking Kol.

"Oh, good. You're finally here," Rebekah said brightly.

"It's about bloody time," Kol muttered. He didn't look too thrilled to be there.

Bonnie looked at Elijah, incredulous.

"They wanted to celebrate, too. I could hardly leave them out," he replied with a shrug.

"Yeah, but you could have left me out," she replied dryly. "I don't know if you been snorting crack or drinking the blood of someone who does, but let me assure you that I want no part of your demented little family get together."

"We haven't celebrated the Yule in ages and Elijah insisted that you be a part of it because you're a witch and even if he won't admit it, he feels bad for what happened to your mother even if you were trying to kills us—"

"You want to reminisce on celebrations perpetuated by the dead mother who tried to kill you multiple times?" Bonnie asked sardonically. She almost felt bad for her lack of tact, but then she remembered just who she was talking to.

"Just because our family has fallen in shambles over the years doesn't mean that there aren't any good memories," Rebekah replied softly.

Bonnie chose to remain silent at that.

"Well…at least you left the other one at home," she finally replied, referring to Klaus. Not that she was really surprised by that. It seemed like they were constantly at odds with the hybrid for one reason or another.

There was an awkward silence.

"So…are we going to actually do anything? I'm bored," Kol complained.

Bonnie rolled her eyes at him.

"We used to hang up holly and ivy and mistletoe inside and outside the house," Rebekah said, handing a box full of greenery to Bonnie.

"So we're going to decorate the house together?" Bonnie asked. She was waiting for somebody to pop out and tell her that she was being Punk'd because this simply was _not _happening to her.

"There's no shortage of spike eggnog," Kol helpfully informed her. "Or if you just want straight up liquor, there's no shortage of that either."

Bonnie let out a small laugh. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind because no sane or sober person can spend a whole evening with you guys decorating a house for Yule."

Kol grinned at her.

"Oh, hush both of you," Rebekah snapped. "Nik may be a prat and the little witch over there may be a tightwad, but you're not ruining _my _holiday."

"Yes, dear Bekah," Kol replied dryly. "Because we've been keeping up so well with the holidays over the years."

Bonnie couldn't help the small smile on her face. She herself didn't have any siblings, but seeing those two argue like a normal brother and sister was just so…_familial_.

Decorating the house wasn't really that bad. She actually caught herself smiling and laughing at Kol and Rebekah's antics at times. At some points, she had to escape from Kol who had done his best to trap her under some mistletoe and steal a kiss. Rebekah immensely enjoyed watching him get shot done by her over and over again.

It was almost easy to forget all that they had done to her and her friends. Almost.

"Have you ever celebrated the Yule before?" Elijah asked her.

Bonnie, who was currently hanging boughs of holly on the fireplace mantel, stilled her movements. "I haven't really celebrated any of the Wiccan holidays," she said with a small shrug. "I didn't really concern myself with it because everything that's happened since I've become a witch." Her hands tightened on the holly, crushing some of the leaves in her grip. "Maybe if my Grams' was still around…" she stopped herself. She certainly wasn't in the mood to talk to him about that.

She did her best to ignore Elijah's sympathetic look and when he reached to take one of her hands, she quickly moved them to continue hanging the holly.

"Yule was always our favorite holiday to celebrate," Elijah told her. She assumed that the 'our' was referring to his entire family. "We would decorate the house like this. When we were children, we would be escorted to different homes to be given clove-spiked apples and oranges in newly woven baskets lined with evergreen boughs and wheat stalks, meant to symbolize life and the coming of spring." He paused. "It was one of the few times our father was ever kind…even to Niklaus."

Once again, Bonnie paused just as she was about to finish fastening the holly to the mantel. "It sounds like it was nice," she said softly.

It really did sound nice. It made her think of Christmas when she was younger. Her father had actually made an effort to be there every Christmas then and it was the one time he would actually get along with Grams. Then, as Bonnie grew up to look more and more like her mother, her father stopped making such an effort to be home as often, especially around the holidays, so Bonnie would spend most of her time with Grams even though her father didn't like it. A wistful smile spread on her face as she remembered how on Christmas Eve Grams would be drunk off of spiked eggnog before the night was through and start talking about witchcraft. She would always roll her eyes and tell Grams it was time for her to go to bed and then she would later joke with Elena and Caroline about how it was probably time to put her in a home. She never realized just how much those sort of things meant to her until they were no longer there.

"It was."

She finally looked at him, the small smile on her face before finally finishing tacking the last bow of holly onto the fireplace mantle. They fell into a surprisingly comfortable silence.

"It's time for the Yule log!" Rebekah said, entering the room with a bright smile and her face Kol behind her.

Rebekah handed the log to Bonnie who then bent down to put in the fireplace. Elijah explained to her how it was traditional to decorate it with holly and ivy and then dousing it with either cider or ale before setting it ablaze. Once that was finished, Elijah, who was crouched down beside her, presented her with a box of matches, but instead Bonnie narrowed her eyes and concentrated on the Yule log. She let out a small, surprised laugh when she actually made it catch fire with her magic. Even with Shane's help, she was still half expecting it all to backfire on her and was always pleasantly surprised when it didn't.

"Now we can start the _real _celebration," Kol said, heading for the kitchen. Bonnie assumed he meant that it was time to get drunk.

"Thank you, Bonnie," Rebekah said softly before going to join her brother.

Bonnie went to go sit on the couch in front of the fireplace to watch the Yule log burn. Elijah sat down next to her.

"The Yule is supposed to be about celebrating the dark half of the year ending and the light half of the year beginning," she said.

"It is," Elijah agreed.

"I don't think the light will be coming any time soon. If ever," she said quietly before she could stop herself. She kept her eyes trained on the burning Yule log, not daring to look at him.

He reached out for her hand and this time she didn't move away. Bonnie simply looked down at the larger hand covering hers.

"It will eventually," he said. "It always does. That's just how nature tends to work."

And they sat there together and watched the Yule log continue to burn, her smaller hand clasped in his larger one.

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**A/N: I had lots of fun writing this…especially Kol and Bekah's parts even if they were tiny. I always find Elijah difficult to write, though, so I hope I managed to keep in somewhat in character.**

**Anyway, to those of you celebrating Christmas whether it's tomorrow (or today, depending on timezones) or in about a week (if you're Orthodox), have a merry Christmas! Or, if you don't celebrate Christmas, happy holidays and have a great day! :)**

**Thanks for reading!**


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